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Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: “Grounded” in woo

The other day, as is my wont every week, I was perusing my Folder of Woo, the folder on my computer in which I keep a bunch of URLs leading to many potential targets for Your Friday Dose of Woo, looking for this week’s victim. I had one all picked out, too, but for some […]

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History Holocaust Paranormal Skepticism/critical thinking World War II

Adolf, can you hear me?

Since I started this blog, I’ve become aware of all sorts of weirdness and woo. One special category of woo that irritates me is psychics, particularly the ones who claim that they can contact the dead, like Sylvia Browne or John Edward. They are arguably the worst kind of “psychic,” usually using cold reading or […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Religion

Online prayer benefits breast cancer patients?

Online prayer benefits breast cancer patients? At least that’s what they were saying a couple of days ago on the Internets: NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Praying online in a support group may help women with breast cancer cope with the disease more effectively, a new study shows. Dr. Bret Shaw of the University of […]

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Blogging

Reveal yourselves, O Hidden Ones!

I learn from Janet, Bora, PZ, and Afarensis that this week is supposedly National Delurking Week. Lurkers, for those of you who aren’t hip to the Internet lingo, are people who read blogs (or, for that matter, any form of online forum), but never (or only rarely) leave comments or posts. They are said to […]

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Hitler Zombie Religion Skepticism/critical thinking

The Zombie Courtier’s reply

After having pontificated a bit longer than perhaps I should have about why Richard Dawkins’ treatment of the execution of Saddam Hussein as a missed opportunity for psychological or historical research was so misguided, I thought it might be time to take a more pro-Dawkins tilt. After all, even though the majority of my posts […]